Exploring Vocal Repertoire: Baby Beginners Part 3 (Young Women)

In the last post, I wrote about the three books published by BriLee for the male changing voice.  Today, I will be covering their two books for the developing treble voice.  I guess technically, that could be a young boy whose voice has not changed yet, but I use these primarily for my middle school girls and for beginning high school females.

Like the books for male changing voice, these books include repertoire that is lower and of limited range, as well as songs that move the singer towards freedom in the upper range.  Most importantly, my students like these songs.  Both books come with CDs that have both demo and accompaniment tracks.

My Heart Sings includes 10 songs composed or arranged by Mark Patterson.  There is not a song in this book that I don't like.  "If" and "Send forth a Song" are great songs for those students who have not yet learned how to shift out of chest voice and therefore think they can't sing above A.  With just a few Bs and Cs, these songs help students feel comfortable and stretch their boundaries at the same time.

In "Song of the River" Patterson adds his own beautiful words to a tune that most voice teachers know well, Salley Gardens. This is another favorite among students.  The melody is doubled by the piano in the first verse, but not in the second, so young singers get a chance to test their independence.

"The Violet" is another favorite among students.  Because they love it, they are willing to work to get the F's.  The F is approached both as an octave jump and by steps up moving through D and E to get to the F.

 
Let Nature Sing is a book of  10 songs for women by women.  I was pleased to find Ruth Elaine Schram's "The Song that Nature Sings" in this book.  It is in one of the books for the male changing voice and I've been using it the choral octavo with my women because I've had very few students of either gender that don't like this song.

Laura Farnell adds text and a new melody to an old favorite, "How Can I Keep From Singing."

Lynn Shaw Bailey's arrangement of "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless child" adds a new section that I was not familiar with, so it may have been written just for this.  The two verses we are used to hearing are followed by this new section and then a return to the first verse, fleshing out what is often a very short song and creating AABA form.  And yes, I do talk to my students about form all the time and there are many, clear examples of AABA form in these books.

Ruth Elaine Schram has multiple arrangements of "Oh Shenandoah."  I ordered the octavo thinking I would be getting the arrangement in this book.   I was disappointed to see that they are not the same, but I do like them both and teach both arrangements.

One of my favorite songs in this book is "Pure, White Owl" with words and music by Earlene Rentz.  The point in the music where she sees the bird actually sounds like soaring.  We hear the awe at the beauty of this chance sighting.

Now that we've laid the foundation with music for the youngest singers or singers with a few challenges, we'll move on in the next post to the what I will refer to simply as beginners.